The last of my travels in 2014 recently took me to Boston to visit my son. Boston has become one of my favorite cities. Aside from counting my son among its citizens, it holds and honors an impressive history. The city is walkable, its distinctive neighborhoods layered in varied cultures with sights, sounds, aromas and tastes telling tales of the people who formed this great metropolis.

Boston lights the imagination of writers. It shows up in a lot of great books, either setting the stage for a story or taking center stage as a personality. It is never chosen by chance or default. Even in non-fiction, stories set in Boston have a certain “feel” they could not get from any other city.

Here are some Boston-based books worth checking out:

Fiction:
The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne
An Old Fashioned Girl – Louisa May Alcott
Summer – Edith Wharton
The Late George Apley – John P Marquand
The Last Hurrah – Edwin O’Connor
The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
Still Alice – Lisa Genova

Non-Fiction:
The Story of My Life – Helen Keller
Boston Firsts: 40 Feats of Innovation and Invention That Happened First in Boston and Helped Make America Great – Lynda Morgenroth

For Children:
Make Way for Ducklings – Robert McCloskey
Johnny Tremain – Esther Forbes